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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22711078">Happiness</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons'>DeckofDragons</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Hat in Time (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Feelings of Inadequacy, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, discotrain, let the conductor be happy, valentine's day fic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:47:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,692</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22711078</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Valentine's Day and DJ Grooves has something he needs to confess to the Conductor.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>The Conductor/DJ Grooves (A Hat in Time)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>146</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Happiness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy Valentine's Day!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Valentine’s Day wasn’t a holiday Grooves had paid any attention to in <em>years</em>. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d even had a romantic interest in someone. It had certainly been a very long time ago for sure. And the few times he remembered being interested enough to make a move, he’d always been rejected. There was a chance that would happen this time too.</p>
<p>The Conductor and him were getting along better than ever. And he seemed to be responding well to Grooves’ attempts at flirting. Though it was possible he didn’t know that’s what it was because he could be quite dense at times. Which was why he might reject Grooves; he might not feel the same way. Which would be totally fine, Grooves was a full-grown adult and had been for a long time now, no way was he afraid of getting rejected like some teenager contemplating asking their crush out.</p>
<p>So then now that he had the card and bouquet of roses, why was he sitting here staring at them in his dressing room instead of going over to the Conductor’s side of the studio to confess and ask him out? … Because the penguins and owls would see and he didn’t want that? … That was part of it. It had an easy solution though: invite the Conductor over here. And that wouldn’t even be suspicious, now that they’d made several movies together, visiting each other’s dressing rooms was a common occurrence. So… why wasn’t he picking up his phone and texting the Conductor to tell him to come over here?</p>
<p>A few minutes passed and still he did nothing. Flirting was one thing but an outright confession was something else entirely. He didn’t want to ruin the peace and friendship he’d made with the Conductor. … There he’d admitted it, he <em>was</em> afraid of getting rejected. It wasn’t his fault; he didn’t have much experience with romance so of course he was unsure about it. And there was a good chance this would be his only opportunity to have a romantic relationship so he wanted it to work. No one could blame him for being a little nervous, right? But he did have to get over it and just do it soon… eventually.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>For the first time since his wife’s death, the Conductor wasn’t drinking himself stupid on Valentine’s Day. Which was entirely thanks to DJ Grooves. He’d convinced him to start cutting back on alcohol to point of not even having it in the studio anymore. There were still a few bottles hidden in the basement but those were for emergencies and this was not one.</p>
<p>It left him with nothing to do while on break though. Which all the owls needed right now. They were more nervous and flightier than usual because it was Valentine’s Day so a lot of them were thinking about their crushes, on or off the set. Some of them were even exchanging gifts amongst themselves, platonic and romantic. It was all very annoying and a bit of a disturbance. On the bright side, they were in between projects right now so it wasn’t a huge deal.</p>
<p>What should the Conductor do though? … He could go over to Grooves’ side and upgrade their relationship to friends with benefits for a day. It was the day for romance after all and he had a bit of a crush he wanted <em>out</em> of his system. If he were drunk, he’d do it in a heartbeat. He was sober though so it wasn’t happening. It would probably only make the feelings worse anyway so it was for the best because those could never go anywhere.</p>
<p>With an inward sigh, he slid off his director’s chair at last. Turning, he started for Grooves’ side of the building. He had a potential movie idea they could collab on. He was still in the early stages of thinking about it but he was bored and maybe perhaps a bit lonely so why not share it now? He wasn’t allowed to drink those feelings away anymore so he was going to bother Grooves instead, it’s what he got for convincing the Conductor to stop drinking so much.</p>
<p>On Grooves’ side of studio most of the penguins were just hanging out. Which meant they were on break too and thus the most likely place to find Grooves was his dressing room. The Conductor went straight there. He got a few looks but no one said anything, they were all used him and Grooves working together now.</p>
<p>He didn’t bother knocking on the door. It was unlocked anyway, meaning he could go right in. “Grooves,” he snapped as he stepped in.</p>
<p>Grooves snapped around to face him. He looked shocked in the guilty kind of way as he stood up, moving to block the Conductor’s view of something on the counter behind him. “Conductor! What are you doing here?” Yep, he was nervous and hiding something because he wasn’t reprimanding the Conductor for not knocking.</p>
<p>The Conductor closed the door so no one else could overhear anything. “What are you hiding?”</p>
<p>“Nothing.” It was a poor lie because Grooves was a poor liar.</p>
<p>So the Conductor just walked over and checked for himself. Grooves didn’t even try to stop him. It was roses and a Valentine’s Day card. … Oh! Interesting. Why was he trying to hide it though? It wasn’t like him to be embarrassed about things.</p>
<p>“Gifts given to you or are you planning to give them to someone?” the Conductor asked as he turned back to face Grooves again, standing next to him looking nervous.</p>
<p>“Uh… I bought them to give to someone.” Ah! He was for sure interested in someone then. That was… <em>fine</em>. The Conductor didn’t care, why should he? In fact, he wished Grooves the best in his romantic endeavors, not that he’d ever say so out loud.</p>
<p>“Who?” The Conductor wanted to know who it was though.</p>
<p>Grooves sighed as he lifted hand to rub the back of his neck as he looked down at the roses and card. He seemed to shrug as he looked back at the Conductor. “Well, I suppose now is as a good time as any so, Conductor darling,” he picked them up and held them towards the Conductor, “they’re for you. Happy Valentine’s Day! Would you perhaps like to go out on a date with me this evening? I got… are you okay?”</p>
<p>The Conductor had back pedaled the short distance until he bumped into the dressing room wall. “Me?” he asked, pointing to himself. “You’re pecking asking <em>me</em> out on a date? Are you pecking <em>insane</em>?”</p>
<p>“Uh… is that a ‘no’?” Grooves grimaced.</p>
<p>“I didn’t say ‘no’, I said ‘are you insane?’ Because you pecking got to be to be asking <em>me</em> out. You know me better than anyone else alive.” So he should know just how <em>awful</em> the Conductor was. That he was not the kind of person worth dating when there were so many <em>better</em> people are there, ones actually worth loving.</p>
<p>“So, it’s not a ‘no’? It’s a maybe? Because, darling even if you think I’m off my rocker, I would like to go out a date with you if you’d let me.” He was being sincere. He was a bad liar and not the type to even try to pull a prank like this. “It is Valentine’s Day, the day for confessing one’s feelings, even if it is a bit cliché so Con darling, I care about you as both a friend and lately something more too.”</p>
<p>“<em>Why</em>?” It made no sense. The Conductor didn’t understand how anyone, especially Grooves of all people, could like him at all, especially like <em>that</em>.</p>
<p>Grooves gave him a sad look. “Are you really asking me… why I care about you? You’re a great guy, even if you don’t always act like it. And honestly working with you on those collabs movies of ours have been the most fun I’ve had making films since my passion for it was born. You have some <em>fantastic</em> ideas when you really put your mind to it, I love them. And… you really put me back in my place after the thing with Hat Kid <em>and</em> you helped me apologize to her later. But despite that you stuck around and shortly after that we dropped our rivalry to work together and we became friends… sort of on accident. You’ve been a great friend ever since so… would you at least accept my gift?” He stepped closer to hold the flowers and card towards the Conductor again.</p>
<p>The Conductor <em>should</em> say ‘no’ for Grooves’ sake, he deserved someone better. But… he <em>wanted</em> to say ‘yes’. It was dumb really, he shouldn’t want to date Grooves of all people, they were supposed to be <em>rivals</em>. Though honestly, he’d dropped that a while ago when they started working together on stuff. And it had been a long time since his wife died, he was allowed to be happy again now, right? So…</p>
<p>“Fine, but only because your speech was so disgustingly sappy.” He accepted the card and flowers. The roses of course smelled lovely and the card had a cheesy love poem written inside. It was western themed though with a train making a heart around the words inside. “Thank you,” he grumbled, using the flowers to partially hide his face because suddenly he was on the one feeling embarrassed. His only solace was that there was no possible way Grooves could see his blushing.</p>
<p>Grooves smiled fondly at him. “So… about that date?”</p>
<p>“Yes, yes, I’ll… go on a date with you too.”</p>
<p>“Great! I’m looking forward to it.”</p>
<p>The Conductor was too, more than he wanted to admit. It had been a long time but… he was allowed to be happy with someone again, right? It was okay that seeing Grooves genuinely happy made his heart flutter and that spending time with Grooves and working well with him made him feel good, right? They could go on a date and everything would go well and it would be great and that would be okay.</p>
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